Landfills have become highly regulated. Environmental requirements have established such practices as lining the bottom the landfill. Polyolefin film may be used as a liner of the bottom of landfill pits; however, the lining is done once and the purpose of such a liner is to make the pit impermeable to liquids and solids. Thus, the polyolefin films used are much thicker than those used in the present invention as a cover; further, the widths of film for a liner are heat sealed to make a continuous lining with no fluid opening between widths of the film.
All landfills have a compactor as an operating piece of equipment. Different sized pieces of equipment are used as compactors but all have the common characteristic that the compactor includes a tractor and a blade which pushes the trash and garbage into a desired place. The pushing by the blade and the tractor running over the deposited trash and garbage compacts the deposited materials in the landfill.
Landfills are also required to have the daily fill of trash and garbage covered each night or when the landfill is not in operation. It is understood that the open face of a landfill is the surface of compacted trash and garbage, mostly enclosed in plastic bags, but is also tree pieces, cans, small appliances, wood, shingles, building materials of all kinds, dirt, sludges, and every other material permitted in a landfill. The fill is compacted by the compactor, using an area, trench or ramp method, into an open face which is inclined at an angle of from 5.degree. to 20.degree.. The conventional daily cover for landfills is soil. A six inch cover of soil is required by EPA regulation. Attempts have been made to cover landfills with special materials such as tarps and with special equipment.
According to the present invention, the open face of a landfill is covered very easily every night after completing operation of the landfill with the films of the present invention. The films of the present invention are only 1 to 20 mils thick and prevent the trash from blowing or escaping the landfill. Further, the films of the present invention keep the birds and rodents from entering and scavenging the trash and spreading the trash or disease vectors contained therein to adjacent areas. The film covering also traps the smell of the landfill. The preferred film is a polyolefin film which is degradable.
Polyolefin film has been used as a cover for agricultural purposes. The agricultural film has been laid on the planting surface to enhance and hasten the germination and growth of the plants. In this application, the agricultural film has been held in place by plowing earth onto the edge of the film. This cannot be done in a landfill since earth is not present on the open face of a landfill. Also to cover the face of the landfill, the widths of film must be overlapped.